 ECEMBER 1st marked PFM's comeback to Firenze, 4092 long days after their last show in town. The chosen venue was once again the Teatro Tenda, the same place where they had recorded the live "PerForMance" album in 1981, as well as most of their two 1979 live albums backing Fabrizio De André.
By 6 p.m. I was at the gates, carrying along what possibly was the world's
largest backstage pass... I'm talking about Nick Haus's huge airmail parcel which contained copies of his wonderful artworks to be handed directly to PFM band members.
Believe it or not, in no time I shamelessly went through security controls and was taken backstage in Di Cioccio's room.... I was truely embarrassed at first, fearing I'd be
considered an intruder or something like that, but Di Cioccio was so very friendly (as well as surprised by the parcel I was carrying) and he just told security guards to leave us alone! He then
proceeded to open Nick's parcel and stood still for a few seconds watching both picture and logo - He loved both, my dear Nick!!!! I could tell it, because he couldn't resist from calling Flavio Premoli and telling him:
"Look at this, here's a gift from one of our Internet friends from
California!!" Flavio was delighted as well, and Di Cioccio immediately accepted to have his picture taken from me while holding Nick's artworks (mmmh, probably it'd look great on the website as well....)
By then I could have walked away back outside the gates feeling satisfied
and with a great memory, but... I was about to find out that that was just the beginning of a not-so-ordinary evening! In other words, Di Cioccio insisted that I'd stay and either remain backstage or watch the soundcheck if I wanted to. I was even allowed to let a dear friend of mine in (by then, security at
the door didn't even check us anymore). So me and my friend sat in tenth row at 6:15 and watched the whole soundcheck in an empty venue.
At one point the band stopped playing as someone had to make a phone call,
so I walked in front of the stage and introduced myself to Mussida (whom I had visited in 1981 when I purchased his pedal steel guitar for a friend of mine). I introduced myself as "the guy who came to your house to buy your pedal steel guitar in 1981, and who's now one of the many contributors to
PFM exposure on the Internet" - to my surprise, he still remembered me! (BTW, his wife was there and she did too!!)
Then he smiled and turned to Djivas saying something like:
"Hey Patrick, here's finally one of the guys who are keeping us going on the Net!".
Djivas's reaction was even more surprising: he stopped checking his bass sounds and jumped down the stage to hug me!!!!!!!!
Djivas immediately proceeded to question me about the website - he wanted to know everything about it, and he told me more than once that he had visited
the site already, found it "greeeaaat!" - he even showed me that he was carrying Eduardo's URL in his wallet!!!! He wanted me to know that he was so moved and impressed when he read the story of the "League of PFM Home Builders" - he's got a lot of admiration for all the people who have dedicated their time and passion to this effort.
Djivas also handed me photocopies of newspaper reviews of the first few dates on this tour, and asked me to translate them in English for you all. He then left me to join the rest of the band back onstage in order to complete the soundcheck.
By 7:30 the soundcheck was over, and Mussida came down and asked me and my
friend to follow them backstage. The two of us were simply astonished!!! We then talked and chatted with band members, relatives and management until 8:30, when we decided to secure ourselves a decent seat. I was then given a backstage pass by Mussida (an "official" one, this time!) in order to be allowed backstage again after the show.
I found a seat close to four members of my band, who had arrived only then.
They all made guesses about the setlist, and knowing that I knew the setlist of the Milano show, they didn't want to know it from me - they wanted to be knocked down surprised, and I agreed.
Moreover, I met Gabriele Pasquali, who is also from Firenze and on PFM
mailing list. I just knew I'd meet Gabriele here. I spoke briefly with him and his wife, then....
Then came the show.
A couple of times I remembered that I had a camera, so I duly took a few
 pictures (turned out a few good ones, in my opinion), but throughtout most of the show I wasn't thinking very rationally. Not that I was taking any mind-expanding additives, it was the music itself which provided all that I needed. I remember thinking that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in that moment. I think that was my tenth PFM show, this time after a painfully long leave of absence - but now PFM was back, and imho they were as strong as they have ever been. Great setlist, great versions of the classics, amazing versions of the few songs from Ulisse, and frightening musicianship all the time!!!!!!
The show started around 9:30 and ended past midnight - I'm pretty sure that
the setlist was the same as the one in Milano, encores included. I contributed to several standing ovations, and it often got almost ridiculous as the screaming audience just wouldn't let the guys move on to their following tune...
A curious tip: Premoli's vintage minimoog broke down during "4 holes in the ground" and Premoli uselessly tried to make it work before the beginning of "E' Festa!" - Djivas then walked to Premoli and banged his fist on the minimoog once or twice, but that didn't work either. I liked that scene. Premoli was furiously mad (at his moog, not at Djivas, of course).
Also noteworthy: I noticed a couple of microphones in the audience, so I'm
now about to start my personal hunt for a tape of this Dec.1 Firenze show.
After the show, I walked backstage once more, where I waited for the guys to come out of their dressing rooms. Unfortunately all my amici had to leave shortly after the show.
So I had to wait a while, and eventually PFM members made themselves available once more.
I thanked each member of the band for treating the Firenze audience with such a powerful performance. Then I took a few more pictures, chatted some more, exchanged addressed, had PFM sign my friends' tickets, and so on.
Mussida then insisted that I'd be given a backstage pass for whichever other show of the tour I'd wish to attend. I was told that this pass will allow any other member of the PFM mailing list backstage with me. I couldn't believe it.
Then Djivas asked me if I wanted to join them for a pizza. Could I resist
that? (besides, I suddenly realized that I had just skipped both lunch and supper...)
So, shortly after I found myself sat by a table next to Djivas. We had
reached a nice "pizzeria" not far from the venue, where many PFM fans had gone after the show, not knowing that their favourite band would soon materialize there! (actually, it was all members but Premoli, who doesn't seem to get publicly involved much).
I talked a lot with Djivas and I told him that I had first seen him playing
live with Area in early 1973, so he proceeded to tell me the long and amazing story of how Area was formed. What a story!!
We talked about a lot of other things as well, maybe too many to list here.
But I'll repeat one thing: Djivas kept telling me to thank everybody for the PFM home on the web.
He said that at the end of this tour he'll personally email his thanks to
Eduardo and to the mailing list.
Then Di Cioccio told me some stories about the recent making of the 4cd live box, and how he went assembling it from his own private collection (he claimed to have every single PFM recording that's ever been made. He said "Io ho tutto!").
I then moved in front of Mussida who also told me to thank everybody on the
'net - he said something like "thank you all for having done something which I feel we should have done, and thank you for having done it in such a beautiful and caring way."
He then asked everybody at the table to raise their glass in our honor.
After which, he wanted to know my impressions about the show, sound mixes, lighting. I had millions of questions to ask him, but I tried to limit myself to a minimum, after all we were approaching 3 a.m. in the restaurant.
When we left the restaurant, I told Mussida that I was looking forward to
making it to another date or two among Mestre, Bologna and Orvieto.
After this lucky sort of extended "close encounter", I can state that PFM members are real gentlemen, very humble and soft-spoken persons. If possible, I now admire them even more than ever before.
... While driving back home, I kept pinching my skin as if to prove to myself
that it had all been real.
Gianfranco Rosati
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